Axel Vance and Clarice Starling raced deeper into the maze of narrow alleys after Michael Myers. Thanks to the Physique bonuses from his specializations, Axel’s breathing remained surprisingly steady even while sprinting at full speed. Within less than a minute, he had already opened a noticeable gap between himself and Clarice despite her FBI training.
Axel rounded a corner littered with overturned trash cans and nearly collided with several men stumbling toward him. They were the same civilian bounty hunters who had rushed after Michael earlier, but all traces of their previous confidence had vanished. One of them recognized Axel’s uniform and immediately shouted, "Officer! Thank God! That masked bastard won’t die!"
Axel’s gaze quickly swept over them. Most were still clutching ordinary revolvers or semi-automatic pistols, and their shaking hands showed that whatever happened farther down the alley had destroyed their enthusiasm for collecting the reward. Their weapons had clearly been enough to hit Michael, but not enough to stop him.
"He took everything we fired at him," another man said breathlessly. "I know we hit him. He just kept coming."
Axel was not surprised.
He had already seen Michael absorb multiple gunshots without slowing for long, and after what happened with Ed Gein, abnormal durability no longer seemed impossible. In fact, Michael’s ability to keep moving despite catastrophic injuries was beginning to look even more extreme than Gein’s resurrection.
Axel stepped past the frightened men and gestured for them to clear the way. "Get out of the alley if you’ve had enough."
One bounty hunter stared at him. "You’re still going in there?"
"Yes."
The man swallowed. "Want backup?"
Axel glanced over his shoulder. Fear was written across every face, but the promise of $100,000 was still fighting a powerful battle against common sense. "If you understand what you’re walking into and still want to come, then follow me."
The men exchanged uneasy looks.
Money won.
Several of them tightened their grips on their weapons and cautiously fell in behind Axel. Their courage clearly increased once an armed police officer was leading the group, and Axel did not object because several additional guns could still be useful if everyone followed instructions instead of firing wildly.
Clarice finally caught up with them a few moments later. Sweat covered her forehead and her breathing was heavier than Axel’s, but the pistol in her hand remained perfectly steady. She gave the bounty hunters behind him a questioning glance, then wisely decided there were more important things to discuss.
They continued until the alley narrowed into a cramped service passage between several aging residential buildings. Rusted fire escapes crossed overhead, old pipes ran along cracked brick walls, and abandoned furniture had been piled beside mountains of trash bags. Deep shadows filled nearly every corner, creating dozens of places large enough for a man to hide.
Axel slowed immediately.
This place was almost designed for Michael Myers.
One of the thin bounty hunters nervously pointed toward a dark recess beneath a fire escape. "One of my friends got stabbed right over there. Myers disappeared before any of us could even get a clean shot."
Everyone raised their weapons and stared toward the darkness.
Axel said nothing.
He simply brought the shotgun to his shoulder.
Bang!
The blast tore into the pile of junk inside the recess and sent broken wood and trash scattering across the pavement. Nothing moved afterward, and there was no sign of Michael.
Several bounty hunters looked at Axel in confusion.
Axel pumped another shell into the chamber. "We’re not going to walk into every shadow and give him a chance to jump us."
Understanding slowly appeared on their faces.
Axel raised his voice toward the maze ahead. "Michael! You can stop hiding now."
There was no answer.
Axel fired into another likely hiding place.
Then another.
Each blast destroyed or exposed one more corner where Michael might be waiting. Under Axel’s direction, the group gradually advanced while Clarice kept her attention on the angles that Axel’s shotgun was not covering.
The strategy worked.
The number of safe hiding places steadily decreased.
Then Michael moved.
While Axel’s weapon was pointed toward one side of the passage, the tall figure in dark-blue coveralls suddenly burst from the opposite shadows. Michael charged directly toward the group with terrifying speed, his blank white mask showing no reaction to the wall of guns in front of him.
Clarice reacted first.
Bang! Bang!
Both rounds struck Michael high in the thigh.
His leg jerked from the impacts, and his stride faltered for the first time.
"Now!"
Axel swung the shotgun toward the same leg and fired.
The blast struck at close range.
Michael’s thigh was torn open, leaving the leg mangled badly enough that pale bone became visible beneath shredded fabric and flesh. Any ordinary man would have collapsed immediately and stayed down.
Michael hit the pavement.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then he planted one hand against the ground.
The bounty hunters stared in horror as Michael dragged his destroyed leg underneath himself and slowly forced his body upright again. He swayed once before turning that emotionless mask toward the group and continuing forward.
One man whispered, "Jesus Christ..."
Axel immediately shouted, "Don’t stop! Shoot his legs!"
That snapped everyone out of their shock.
Gunfire erupted through the narrow alley.
Bullets struck Michael’s knees, thighs, and lower legs from several directions. Axel kept everyone focused below the waist, and after repeated impacts, Michael’s legs finally lost the ability to support him.
He collapsed onto both knees.
Still, he tried to move.
"Arms next!" Axel ordered.
The bounty hunters obeyed.
Another violent series of shots echoed between the buildings. Michael’s arms took repeated hits until both were badly broken and could no longer support his weight.
At last, the Shape collapsed completely.
Michael lay on the pavement like a torn-apart rag doll, his ruined limbs shifting uselessly whenever he tried to move. The damage should have caused catastrophic blood loss within moments, yet surprisingly little blood flowed from the wounds.
That detail disturbed Axel more than the injuries themselves.
Michael was still conscious.
Behind the blank white mask, his unseen eyes remained fixed on everyone surrounding him.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then a pistol hit the pavement with a metallic clatter.
Axel looked toward the sound.
The thin bounty hunter who had guided them into the alley was trembling so badly that he could no longer hold his weapon. He stared at Michael’s mutilated body and whispered, "That thing isn’t human."
His voice shook harder.
"He’s a demon."
Axel’s expression changed.
Demon.
The word immediately reminded him of the expensive Bible Hannibal Lecter had sent him and the specialization it had awakened.
Holy Reading.
Until now, Axel had never found a suitable opportunity to test it on an actual supernatural target. Michael was immobilized, surrounded, and apparently incapable of escaping for the moment. If Holy Reading truly damaged unholy entities, this was the safest chance Axel was likely to get.
He slung the shotgun and pulled the hardcover Bible from inside his jacket.
Clarice stared at him. "You brought a Bible into a manhunt?"
"It’s complicated."
She watched him open it and raised an eyebrow. "Are you planning to exorcise Michael Myers?"
Axel glanced toward her. "That’s the idea."
Clarice looked genuinely surprised. "I didn’t know you were a priest."
"I’m not."
That answer made her stare harder.
"You’re going to perform an exorcism without being a priest?"
Axel almost laughed despite the situation. "If this guy really is possessed by something, do you expect me to call Rome and ask the Vatican to mail me permission first?"
Clarice covered a smile with one hand. "Fair point."
Axel looked back at Michael.
Clarice added, "If anyone complains afterward, tell them the FBI authorized it."
"Very generous of you."
Their brief joke loosened some of the tension among the bounty hunters, but Axel quickly returned his attention to the Bible. He opened to the beginning and started reading aloud while keeping Michael in sight.
Several minutes passed.
Axel continued.
Then several more.
His throat gradually became dry from reading, but the effect was disappointing.
Michael’s body twisted more violently whenever Axel spoke, yet nothing else seemed to happen. There was no smoke, no screaming, no supernatural reaction, and certainly no sudden purification.
Axel lowered the Bible slightly. "What am I doing wrong?"
Clarice moved closer and glanced at the page.
After a moment, she frowned. "I’ve never performed an exorcism either, but I’m pretty sure reading straight through from the beginning isn’t how anyone does it."
Axel looked at her. "You have a better idea?"
Clarice carefully flipped forward through several pages. "You’re mostly reading narrative passages and teachings. If this ability is supposed to hurt something evil, maybe you need something dealing directly with judgment."
She stopped at another section.
"Try this."
Axel looked down at the passage she had selected.
The tone was completely different.
Instead of stories or moral instruction, the verses spoke of divine wrath, judgment, punishment, and the destruction of wickedness. Axel nodded slowly because even without understanding how the system interpreted scripture, Clarice’s reasoning made sense.
"Worth trying."
Axel raised the Bible again.
Then he began to read.
His voice carried clearly through the alley as the words of judgment replaced the gentler passages he had used before. The moment the first several lines left his mouth, Michael Myers’s body suddenly stopped twisting.
Then his entire body jerked.
Axel’s eyes narrowed.
This time, something was happening.
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